The University established Nottingham University Consultants (NUC), a trading division of Nottingham University Industrial and Commercial Enterprises Ltd, to specifically provide management, commercial and financial support and expertise to staff wishing to carry out consultancy.
Academics providing consultancy via NUC are also covered by the University's Professional Indemnity Insurance.
Staff are encouraged to use NUC to support their consultancy work.
The development of external work directly supports The University of Nottingham's Global Strategy 2020 and specifically in research and knowledge exchange. Knowledge exchange activities generate benefits for the economy and society, enhance the University's reputation for teaching excellence and world changing research, including through REF Impact case studies, and increases its market share of income from private, public and third sectors.
The University actively supports academics with their industrial engagement. Many already have good connections and regularly provide expertise and advice to external organisations.
The University adopts a positive attitude to academics acting as consultants as an effective way of disseminating knowledge. Unlike research, consultancy does not have, as its prime purpose, the generation of new knowledge. A typical consultancy project is short-term, makes minimal use of University facilities, has a formal agreement and the contracted outputs are usually owned by the client. In addition, the University doesn't normally have freedom to publish without client approval.
Examples of consultancy include:
